Srinagar: Operation of civilian flights resumed at Srinagar airport from Tuesday, with a SpiceJet aircraft leaving New Delhi airport for the Jammu and Kashmir capital at 2.30 pm. The return flight will take off from Srinagar at 4.30 pm, SpiceJet announced.
Srinagar was among the 32 airports in northern and western India that closed down civilian flight operations after the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor on May 7. While SpiceJet was the first to resume its services on Tuesday, other airlines like Air India and Indigo are likely to do so from Wednesday.
SpiceJet has also announced the resumption of its Haj flights from Srinagar. On Wednesday, the airline will operate two flights to Medina using wide-body Airbus A340 aircraft. Each of these will carry 324 passengers. SpiceJet has announced that it is facilitating the travel of nearly 15,500 Haj pilgrims this year.
The first batch of 178 pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir left Srinagar on May 4. Since then, no more Haj flights took off. As many as seven Haj flights from Srinagar on May 7 and May 12 were cancelled.
There was excitement in the state after the Haj flights resumed. “There will be three Haj flights on Wednesday and Thursday. A new schedule will shortly be announced for the seven flights that were cancelled,” said Shujaat Ahmad Qureshi, executive officer of the Jammu and Kashmir Haj Committee.
A total of 3,622 pilgrims from Jammu and Kashmir and 242 from Ladakh are going for Haj this year. Eleven Haj flights were scheduled to operate from Srinagar airport between May 4 and May 15.
All political parties in the state, including the ruling National Conference (NC) has welcomed the resumption of flights from Srinagar. NC leader Tanvir Sadiq said that there is an immediate need to increase the number of flights to ensure all pilgrims manage to make the trip.